Williams To Test New Emergency Siren
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Williams College will test its new outdoor emergency siren for up to two minutes beginning at noon on Friday, April 3."Williams has joined the growing number of colleges that have acquired an emergency siren," Jim Kolesar, assistant to the president for public affairs, said in a letter going to Williamstown residents. "If there's ever an emergency at Williams of the kind we've all heard about happening on campuses elsewhere, the siren will emit a steady sound for several minutes."
Students, faculty, and staff would receive at the same time a phone call, e-mail, and text message informing them of the nature of the emergency. Local residents will be able to check the college's home page (www.williams.edu) or call 597-4698 for the same information.
"To test the siren for the first time, we plan to turn it on for up to two minutes on Friday, April 3, at noon," the letter said. "We'll put a notice on the college home page indicating that that's a test."
As part of preventive maintenance, the siren will also be turned on for 15 seconds at noon on the first Saturday of every month beginning this May.
For the first test, college and town officials will be placed around campus and in nearby neighborhoods to determine how fully the signal penetrates college buildings and how far it carries off campus.
"Depending on where you live, many of you will never hear it," the letter continued. "If you hear it at noon on April 3, that's the first test. If you ever hear it for a short time, that's one of the monthly tests. If you hear it for a long time, you can check www.williams.edu or call 597-4698, preferably the former, to learn the nature of the emergency."
The siren will sound simultaneously from two locations: atop the college's science center and its Mission Park dormitory complex.
Kolesar said that adding a siren to the ways the college would communicate in an emergency makes sense because there are often people on campus who aren't students, faculty, or staff and not all college people are near their computers or cell phones all the time. He added that the siren should also increase safety in nearby areas since people there will know as soon as anyone if an emergency takes place on campus.
"Some of us are old enough to recall the regular testing of air raid and fire department sirens," he concluded. "In a way, this is a step back to those days."
